Beer Drinkers Appreciation Society (BDAS) 2023 Mentor Group - ALWAYS OPEN (Page 95)

Thanks. I guess that's what actually following a running plan will do for you

Honestly, I've been really enjoying running almost every day. Still don't enjoy the getting out of bed part, but the actual running part is great. We will see how I still feel about it in November, when I switch back to the Ironman focus after another half and a full marathon but for now loving it. Favourite workout of the week remains my weekend long run followed with coffee at the beach. Life is tough.

Never fear…this morning I’m back to “unproductive” training, according to Garmin.

90’ critical velocity intervals ride this morning, which was one of those rides where I had to negotiate with myself the entire time. Finish this interval and you can just do the time as Z2…then at the end of the interval it becomes the next interval and so on. Finally finished the dang ride though and felt great by the end. Then at lunch, lifting. A good session, but my quads are dying completely now.

I look forward to seeing my 90 something hours recovery time after Sundays race.

Unproductive is Garmin's most passive aggressive state.

Nice work winning the Coach Gretchen vs Athlete Gretchen negotiations. I've definitely been there half way through a hard interval workout.

Well, 2 sleeps till race time. HRV/Training status is still terrible according to Mr Garmin, but I think we've all agreed to ignore him.

Been following the training plan very closely this week, getting a taper right is something I'm never sure about. Still to come is a half hour fast finish run this evening to sharpen the legs one last time, and an easy 20 minute jog tomorrow, which I'll do at about race start time.

For the race, to help sort things out in my own head and because I did this before my last goal race, here are some goals and a bit of a plan.

Main, #1, A Goal. Run the fastest half marathon of my 30's. Time to beat 2:33:21.
Stretch Goal, 2:20:00. I'd have to run faster than my HM pace training runs, but a bit of taper week magic and race day adrenaline, maybe?
FWIW, Garmins race predictor 2:16:22. No F'n way.

The course is 2 laps along water the waterfront on Tamaki Drive (where I do most of my long runs) Its flat and fast. There are 4 hairpin corners (1 at the end of each lap), but really the course offers no excuse.
For Nutrition, The aid stations only have water and electrolytes, so I'm going to carry 5 gels with me. The plan is to take in around 50g/carbs ab hour. Which is a gel every 30 minutes, and one spare for emergencies.
Pacing. The website says there should be pacers, the slowest of which is 2:20:00. So, I'm planning to go out with them for the first 5-10km and see how I'm feeling. If it's a really good day I'll try to stick it out if I'm working to hard I'll back off slightly, accept I'm going to run a positive split and bring it home in under 2:30.

Have a good weekend all.
And good luck for your 10km Mike. What's your goal time?

Same!

Mike, hope you all made it home safe! You missed all the rain here and should be coming back to a lovely (albeit, not quite as warm as Florida) weekend!

Gretchen, amazing month! Also, yay for saving a dog. Those dogs are amazing. And she saved you from potential tree smoosh, just proving her worth!

Andrew, good luck in your race!!! Sounds like you have a solid plan, and are coming off of some amazing training. Can't wait to hear how it goes!

I've had a pretty productive week! Got in 2 30 min rides, 2 core workouts, some stretching, a 30 minute run yesterday (and some pickleball ), and a strength workout. Not in that order, but that was my week so far. I'm taking it easy today, going to try to do some yoga. I'm having some pretty severe hip pain (mostly inside, like where my glute meets my hamstring) so need to get some solid stretching in and let it rest a bit. Going to try swimming tomorrow, hoping the low impact is something that I can handle.

Work is busy but good and I'm feeling a little more organized, and plan on cranking out work today so I can go into the weekend feeling good. I've had some early wake ups from work stress, but had a good therapy session this morning and she helped me reframe some stuff so hopefully that helps. I'm certainly feeling better!

2500yds in the pool, followed by two hours of wrestling with SIU’s incompetent IT staff. I think it was a low Z2 workout until the end, when they just basically told me they had no idea how to fix my issue and despite being told yesterday that the guy who could fix it would be in today, the guy who could fix it wasn’t there. Then it was a solid Z4 workout.

We switched MFA systems from Duo to Microsoft. They’ve screwed it up completely (no surprise to anyone who has ever dealt with siu for anything) and I’ve been locked out of my email, all office suite programs, and my files stored in one drive since yesterday morning. Sigh…if I didn’t have so much damn work to do, I’d just say f it until Monday, but I do, and Monday is the eclipse, where 20,000 people will descend on campus and I do not want to be on campus at all.

Good luck to our racers this weekend!! Andrew and Mike for sure…anyone else? If not…ladies! We need to represent!!

Oh Mike is this sole of the city?! I'll check the route and come cheer if I'm able! Heading to Masters shortly though so I will probably miss it depending on gun time

Good luck Andrew and Mike! Looking forward to hearing about you both crushed it.

End of a miserable week for me. Sick all Easter weekend. Felt better on Monday/Tuesday so went on my work trip to Scotland but I never got well enough. Felt fine in the mornings but terrible in the afternoons and went to bed early both nights. And do you know what 10 hours sleep in a hotel bed does to your back? Woke up on Thursday with terrible back pain. Travelled back: delayed plane, delayed luggage, etc. 3 hours drive home in my colleague’s car and my car which I left at the office wouldn’t start.
Up early on Friday, went to work, jumped started the car, went to hockey (semi final one) and they lost.

Trainingwise, errr, nothing.

Still don’t feel a 100% but will go out for a shorter long run now and see if that cures me. Should sort out the back if nothing else.

How did those races go, fellas?

Today I had a solid bike, 2:15 with 10x1’ in Z4/5. It was a pretty good ride, despite the fact that my planned entertainment was to watch the Bombers play and they lost in spectacular fashion. It was awful. About an hour after finishing the ride I hit the pool for 2200yds in a very condensed practice (coach had to leave to get to a swim meet out of town). That went well too. Now I’m going to hunker down and avoid going out until Tuesday if at all possible. This eclipse madness is crazy! I can’t wait for it to be over!! The last one (2017 or 2018) so many people came to carbondale! I heard it took some people seven hours to drive to the interstate access point, which is 12 miles away.

We’re forecast for 44% cloud cover, but that won’t keep the hoards from showing up.

Sorry to hear your daughter didn’t have a good race but good on you for staying with her (and ending up being “that guy”). Still, must be nice to keep your title

Went for an even slower and a little shorter long run yesterday, which felt good. Still a little snotty and had a headache all day yesterday and all night but it seems on its way out now (Sunday morning).
Today on the menu, a long ride (shorter and slower) and the second semifinal (go Lakers, you can’t lose the first 2 home games or we’re in trouble).

Hi guys, short version. Not 100% perfect day, but met the main goal and ran my fastest HM in the last decade. 2:28:39. Legs are stuffed, but happy

Race Report.

Race day was the first day after daylight savings ended, so we all got a sleep in, despite leaving home at 5:30. Excellent planning from the organisers. Started the day with a bottle of tailwind to sip on for an hour or so before the start. Mrs Bullfrog dropped me close to the race venue (The venue is an amazing place to run, but with the main road closed for racing, parking is a nightmare. Very happy to be chauffeured around for this one) Dropped off about an hour before the race started time enough to check in and get my race bib, finish my tailwind, hang around for a bit and have a quick 5 minute warm up jog.

When we all headed over to the starting pen, I could find no sign of the 2:20 pacer I had hoped to follow. So I lined up several rows behind the 2:10 pacer. Unfortunately my missing pacer did show up, but settled in the pens quite a bit ahead of me. With the big crowd taking their time to get over the start line I was probably a minute or so behind him at the start of the race, I decided that trying to close that gap with a few fast km to begin the race was asking for trouble so race plan #1 was gone, new plan was to try and settle into my own pace, about 6:50/km (2:25 finish) and speed up/try to avoid too much of a slow down, at the back end of the race, depending on how things were going.

1st 5k The first part of the run went to plan. Had my first gel at half an hour and knocked off the 5k in 34:09, bang on my 6:50 target, 2nd aid station was at the 5k turn, slowed to a walk for a few steps and downed some water, a process repeated at all the aid stations.

2nd 5km after the turn was a bit tougher, as this direction was into the wind (which was unexpectedly strong) so that probably cost a little bit of time. At this point I was overtaking a lot of the runners I had been yo-yo swapping positions with at the start. I guess this far back in the field people aren't that good at pacing. Walked a few steps for the aid stations again and knocked off the 2nd 5k in 34:24 (6:53/km pace) not bad.

The 3rd 5k was when the fade started to happen, After the 13km aid station I struggled to get going again, ran the next 2km 15-20sec/km slower than planned so started to drop a bit of time. And around km 12 I started to develop a hot spot on my left foot. Very unexpected as although my shoes were relatively new I had done an 18km training run (mostly at HM pace) with no issues. So a developing blister, especially this early was not in the plan. Got the 5km done in 34:59, (7:00s/km)

Km 16, I really tried to force myself to get back on pace, I didn't quite manage to get to race pace but got from 7:10/km back down to 6:59 for the next 2 km. Km 18 had another aid station, where I walked through as planned, slightly longer than the early aid stations but would have been less than 10 seconds. Again though, I struggled to get going again, and this is where the fade really set in. The combination of fatuige setting in, my blister becoming an increasing annoyance and getting onto the most exposed part of the course where the headwind was hurting (got all the excuses in) The next 3km were around 7:30/km to finish the 4th 5k in 36:16 (7:16 pace)

The final kilometer and a bit, the hurt was on. I tried to speed back up, and I did a little, but not much. At this point my game was picking a random struggling runner ahead and trying to run them down. 'Takin souls' as Goggins would say. I got 2 or 3 and made it to the finish in 2:28:39.

Post race had a very nice sit down. Haha. Called the Mrs Bullfrog taxi service to come pick me up, grabbed a coke and a coffee and headed home. Leg are absolutely stuffed.

Wrap up.
If you had offered me sub 2hr 29 minutes in January when I started this half marathon program I would have taken it. Smashed my fastest HM of my 30's goal, which was the #1 thing I wanted to achieve. And FWIW 56 minutes faster than my last HM (October 2022) However, I know my race wasn't perfect, I let myself coast a little too much in the 2nd half. I do think somewhere around 2:25 should have been possible. So happy, but a little disappointed at the same time.

On to the next one, Wellington is 11 weeks away. I think sub 2:20:00 should be a goal for that.





Attachments
----------------
Waterfront HM 24 - Low Res.jpg (75KB - 3 downloads)

Nice job pacing the offspring. And glad to hear you still have the runners crown in your family. I feel her pain on hitting the wall, that sounds awfully familiar.

@Gretchen, aren't computers wonderful? At least up until they aren't. Hopefully they got things sorted for you. If not I prescribe some hard, Z4-5 intervals to take out your frustrations.

@Nat, What a week. At least it's over now, and next week has to be better. How's the back pain after a few days back in a decent bed?

@Nicole, Nice week, lots going on and a bit of consistency creeping back. Keep it up.

That’s all that matters, kicking past Bullfrog’s arse. Well done!


Miserable week was followed by an OK weekend, still have the remnant of that cold/flu (whatever it is) bothering me so only low intensity on the menu but got in a decent long run on Saturday (almost 14k). Yesterday’s long ride was not that long (22k) and extremely slow (one hour) and goes under BTN (better than nothing)

The Lakers, not satisfied with losing the first home game of the semis, also lost the 2nd home game of the semis (they play HH AA H A H). I have already kind of accepted that they will not go to the final (I like to start my grieving process early, it’s over sooner that way ) but I hope the players haven’t, fat lady and all that.

Have a great week BT!


Edited by Rollergirl 2024-04-08 8:30 AM

Great job Mike and Andrew!! Mike--way to retain the running title in your household! I hope you walked around like it was no big thang all afternoon just to exert your dominance on the offspring, whom I'm sure was hurting. :D. Andrew--crushing that PR and heading into the next race with some solid motivation!

Happy eclipse day to the North Americans! Finally...it will be over and I don't have to listen to everyone talk about it anymore! I mean...it is cool and all, and if I were an astro-scientist, I'd be hyped, but I cannot understand all these people who are just over the moon about the eclipse and traveling 100s of miles to see it in the arc of totality. I'll step into the yard for a few to see it, but I'm not making a meal of it today. Just trying to avoid the crowds, which I did this morning on my way back from the gym.

Morning session--1600yd swim and then an hour of lifting. Swim was rapid fire, because I needed to get home for my Arabic session, which was moved to today (normally on Tuesday) due to the Eid holiday, marking the end of Ramadan. I wasn't thinking when I agreed to change my lesson day, but it was a TIGHT morning.

Afternoon session--60' of Z2 riding that I will begrudgingly do on the trainer, because there is no way I'm riding in this town while it is full of looky-loos. It is bad enough on a normal day! Maybe I'll drag my trainer outside and ride during the eclipse. We'll see what the day brings work-wise.